Buckethead

Bombing of Nimbus

Anyone tuning into the Serenity Concord news broadcasts would find the familiar, detached expression of news anchor John Boyega would be staring back at them. He cleared his throat, and began to speak.

“Several weeks ago, as many of you know, an Andorian male identified as Koss Th’sherheth entered a hospital on Nimbus station while Commander Mike-037 was visiting an injured Solus Tempus Marine, and bombed the building. Aside from causing massive amounts of structural damage to the hospital and nearby buildings with the blast itself, he took the lives of 100 civilians and hospital workers, as well as severely injuring 20- including the target of the bombing: Commander 037. 30 more civilians were left with minor injuries. Everyone else was unharmed.

“Protests have sprung up against the excessive use of force against the media by ST security forces during the crisis,” Boyega’s words were supported with video of Tobi Angelos straight up yoinking all the media equipment out of the reporter’s hands while the hospital burned in the backround. “However, as no damage was done to the equipment or reporters, none of the outlets involved have pressed charges. Our own Serenity Concord Broadcasting Company claiming that ‘Solus Tempus security was merely trying to keep everyone at a safe distance from ground zero’. The public disagrees.”

The footage changed to video of security forces being obstructed on patrol by a group of protesters. There was no audio, due to the amount of obscenities shouted at the two poor patrolmen. They looked afraid for their safety, hands tightly gripping their phasers as more security arrived to try and disperse the crowd.

“The bomber’s apartment was searched, and it was revealed he left a note behind for Solus Tempus and the Concord at large. For security reasons, we’ve not been permitted to release the exact words on the note, but long story short… Koss Th’sherheth claimed that ST has long discriminated against non-humans of all kinds. He didn’t provide any proof, only accusations. He also accused the organization of becoming a fascist state with the increasing size of the military and the seemingly total control of Fleet Admiral Lance Thomas and Fleet Admiral Sal D’Amico. He claimed to be part of an Onyx supported ring of anti-human terrorists aiming to help bring about the demise of Solus Tempus.

This has sparked more outrage, as it seems the recent attempts to guarantee the safety of civilians have only brought more danger, closer to home.”

Introducing Force Recon

“This already causes some issues for most, as the Spartan-II’s have already been proven to be unreliable and sketchy at best.” A flat out lie, but Mr. Boyega’s job was just to read the words on the screen. He couldn’t have cared less about this himself. “The fact that Solus Tempus continues to increase their military presence is also frightening to many, and protests have begun to try and bring about some sort of limitation on the organization’s growing armies.”

After a very generic, local news type intro with some synth riffs and aggressive brass that was just grating to any ears listening, the actual reporting began. A man behind a desk in a suit, holding a PADD began to read from a teleprompter behind the camera.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the most trusted source of news within the Serenity Concord. I’m John Boyega, and boy do we have some things to go over today.” The screen changed from his face to footage of the Solus Tempus Marine Corps during a training exercise.

“Just a month ago, the Command Staff of Solus Tempus announced they’d be opening a special forces division of their Marines. They’ve named it Marine Force Recon, and already the news has kicked up dust among the general population in Schatten system. It’s stated purpose is to be the first line of offense between Solus Tempus and anyone who would attempt to attack them, and it’s being led by Spartan-II’s Mike-037 and Alicia-052.”

The screen now showed two pictures, one with Mike standing in his armor without the helmet, and a second with Alicia fully enclosed in her armor.

Now they showed clips from the protesters being interviewed. Boyega sipped his coffee and relaxed, he didn’t have to do anything now. Not until the cameras panned back at least. The first protester was a young woman, around her early twenties it looked like.

“We can’t just let them shoot anyone who disagrees with them! The Serenity Concord was formed to promote peace, and Solus Tempus putting some warcrime machines in charge of a bunch of trigger-happy, brainwashed teenagers is not peaceful. What are they gonna do? Conquer the whole galaxy?”

The other clips were some variation of this, and there were mentions of Leo and the Epoch acting as the mobile headquarters of the special forces. The camera panned back to Boyega.

“That’s currently all the information we have on Force Recon, as the Spartans refuse to release any information- even the names of the men and women they’ve recruited have been hidden behind number codes. Whatever they’re doing, it’s probably no good. And now, on a lighter note: space squirrels.”

An Update From Enus

The entire fleet has completed their refits, we are now fully combat operational. Our Immobilizer, the INV Hound, has been refit to include the ability to interdict the warp cores of a majority of Solus Tempus warships. Imperial Security Bereau officer Tierney has interrogated our prisoner, Lieutenant Commander Megan Shepard. He has achieved fantastic results, I must give him credit. I have yet to see anyone break a prisoner as quickly as he broke Lieutenant Commander Shepard. We now have the command codes of their inter-dimensional gates, and the USS Pegasus. We also have a complete list of the ships in Schatten System, with the general armaments and captains, as well as the position of other orbital defenses. I have also recieved a report from my agent residing on Nimbus. Tensions are rising, and I have assigned agent Tarkiel to assist in creating more strife. I organized a trap for Solus Tempus forces, but they came prepared and I nearly lost the Serpent, and I did lose several vital support vessels and fighters. After a short stop in Federation space, I will be returning to Onyx spacedocks for repairs.